Fabric ribbons are widely used in various office printers, such as typewriters, cash registers, telex machines and computer printers. Although some ribbons are made to be single-pass, increasingly the ribbons are made of nylon fabric or equivalent so that they can be multi-pass.
Although multi-pass ribbons have a long potential life, they become unsuited for their intended purpose if their ink content is depleted, and thus it is desirable that there be provided a device and method for re-inking such fabric ribbons, perhaps up to one hundred times, until the fabric itself becomes too worn for re-use.